RIP Mentoring Programme

[Phil Bull]

Hi guys,

I've not had any time to work on the mentoring programme recently, and
the way that it's set up requires quite a bit of initial interaction
with new students that I'm not currently able to provide. As such, I'm
proposing that we do away with the mentoring programme as-is and just
provide advice/feedback/mentoring as and when new contributors need it.

As I see it, one of the weaknesses of the mentoring programme has been
that we try to take students on board before they have any ideas about
the tasks that they can be expected to work on. Quite a few students
never even reply to my initial email, so providing a small initial
hurdle (such as having to choose a task) should discourage those who
aren't very serious about joining the team. The downside is that I don't
expect as many people to express an interest in helping out, but the
ones who do will hopefully be more committed from the outset.

I propose that we advertise tasks of varying difficulties on the wiki
[1] and allow people to choose one before they get in touch with us. We
can then collectively guide them through the course of the task,
providing help on the mailing list/IRC as appropriate.

When we advertise tasks, we should provide as much background
information as possible so that new contributors have a good idea of
what to do from the very beginning. There should be goals/milestones for
each task so that people have targets to work to and something to focus
on. I think that a more structured approach like this will help to
reduce the confusion that some previous students have experienced. Two
examples are on the wiki [1].

What do people think about this? Feedback/suggestions/flames more than
welcome.

Thanks,

Phil

[1] -
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Tasks

-- 
Phil Bull
https://launchpad.net/people/philbull